It’s not a “long story” in the literary sense (like a novel), but rather a parody of crime thrillers and film industry tropes. However, I can tell you the as a long, detailed narrative.
Here is the of Cité de la peur . The Setup: A Terrible Film Festival The story begins at the Cannes Film Festival (the "Cité" of the title is a pun on "Cannes"). A low-budget, absurd horror film called Red Is Dead is about to premiere. The film’s producer, a nervous and clumsy man named Serge Karamazov (Alain Chabat), is desperate for success.
The film’s lead actress is a gorgeous but talentless starlet named (Chantal Lauby). Her dialogue is laughably bad, her acting is wooden, and the film’s plot makes no sense: a killer wearing a diving mask murders people with a claw hammer while a detective repeats, "The murderer is the one who kills people." The "Murderer" Arrives During the screening, a strange man in a diving mask and wetsuit—exactly like the killer in Red Is Dead —walks into the theater. But instead of a claw hammer, he’s carrying a baguette . He walks up to a film critic and beats him to death with the bread. No one is sure if it’s part of the film’s promotional stunt or a real murder. cite de la peur
Simon, despite being a complete failure as a detective, gets the girl. He and Agnès kiss while a subtitle on screen reads: "They lived happily ever after. Until the sequel."
In the final confrontation, the director (in diving mask, holding a baguette) explains his elaborate, pretentious motive involving the death of cinema. Simon, trembling, tries to arrest him but trips. Agnès, by pure accident, knocks the director unconscious with a falling prop tombstone. The film ends exactly as it began: with a screening. Red Is Dead becomes the biggest hit of the year, not because it’s good, but because people think the baguette murders were a genius marketing campaign. It’s not a “long story” in the literary
If you haven’t seen it, imagine Airplane! or The Naked Gun but made by French comedians who hate pretentious cinema. That’s Cité de la peur .
Panic erupts. Serge, seeing an opportunity for publicity, decides to milk the event. Meanwhile, a real, incompetent, and utterly ridiculous police detective named (Dominique Farrugia) is assigned to the case. Simon is terrified of everything, has zero deductive skills, and is secretly in love with Agnès. The Investigation (Such as it is) Simon, Serge, and Agnès form an unlikely trio. Simon’s "method" of investigation involves guessing randomly and hiding behind furniture. Serge is only interested in promoting his film. Agnès is blissfully unaware of the danger, more concerned with her acting "craft" (which consists of reciting lines like "I’m sad. Very sad. I’m going to eat an apple"). The Setup: A Terrible Film Festival The story
It sounds like you’re referring to (known in English as The City of Fear ), a cult French comedy film from 1994 directed by Alain Berberian, starring the legendary comedy trio Les Nuls (Alain Chabat, Chantal Lauby, and Dominique Farrugia).
Simon accuses Serge. Serge, flustered, admits he wrote the script. But then Serge accuses Agnès. Agnès accuses the caterer. It’s a mess. Finally, through a series of absurd deductions (including a clue about a rare type of breadcrumb found at every crime scene), Simon realizes the truth.
The killer is (played by the director of the real film, Alain Berberian, in a cameo). Why? Because the director was furious that Serge had rewritten his script, turning his serious psychological thriller into a stupid horror-comedy. So, he decided to literally kill the film by murdering people in the most ridiculous way possible—with a baguette—to make the whole project a laughingstock.
They travel from Cannes to Paris, chasing clues that make no sense. The killer (still in the diving mask, still carrying a baguette) keeps striking. He kills a projectionist by forcing him to watch a bad film. He kills a script supervisor by… giving her a bad review. Eventually, after many nonsensical chase scenes (including one where they run through a museum and discuss existentialism while being chased by a mime), Simon has an epiphany: the killer is copying the murders from Red Is Dead . But since Red Is Dead is a fictional film, the only person who could know the script is…